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Bundled Payments in Total Joint Arthroplasty: Targeting Opportunities for Quality Improvement and Cost Reduction

  • Symposium: 2013 Knee Society Proceedings
  • Published:
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®

Abstract

Background

Understanding the type and magnitude of services that patients receive postdischarge and the financial impact of readmissions is crucial to assessing the feasibility of accepting bundled payments.

Questions/purposes

The purposes of this study were to (1) determine the cost and service components of a 30-day total joint arthroplasty (TJA) episode of care; (2) analyze the portion of the total payment that is used for postdischarge services, including home care; and (3) to evaluate the frequency of readmissions and their impact on total episode-of-care payments.

Methods

All payments to Medicare providers (hospitals, postacute care facilities, physicians, and other healthcare providers) for services beginning with the index procedure and extending 30-days postdischarge were analyzed for 250 Medicare beneficiaries undergoing primary or revision TJA from a single institution over a 12 months. Payments and services were aggregated by procedure type and categorized as index procedure, postacute care, and related hospital readmissions.

Results

Mean episode-of-care payments ranged from USD 25,568 for primary TJA in patients with no comorbidities to USD 50,648 for revision TJA in patients with major comorbidities or complications, with wide variability within and across procedures. Postdischarge payments accounted for 36% of total payments. A total of 49% of patients were transferred to postacute care facilities, accounting for 70% of postdischarge payments. The overall 30-day unplanned readmission rate was 10%, accounting for 11% of postdischarge payments.

Conclusions

Episode-of-care payments for TJAs vary widely depending on the type of procedure, patient comorbidities and complications, discharge disposition, and readmission rates. Postdischarge care accounted for more than one-third of total episode payments and varied substantially across patients and procedures.

Level of Evidence

Level III, therapeutic study. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Vanessa Chan MPH, for her assistance in preparing this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, 500 Parnassus, MU 320 W, San Francisco, CA, 94143-0728, USA

    Kevin J. Bozic MD, MBA & Thomas P. Vail MD

  2. Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Kevin J. Bozic MD, MBA

  3. Performance Excellence Department, University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Lorrayne Ward MBA, MPP

  4. Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Mervyn Maze MB, ChB

Authors
  1. Kevin J. Bozic MD, MBA
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  2. Lorrayne Ward MBA, MPP
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  3. Thomas P. Vail MD
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  4. Mervyn Maze MB, ChB
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kevin J. Bozic MD, MBA.

Additional information

Financial support was received from the California Health Care Foundation (KJB) and the University of California Center for Health Quality and Innovation (KJB).

All ICMJE Conflict of Interest Forms for authors and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research editors and board members are on file with the publication and can be viewed on request.

Each author certifies that the institution where the work was performed approved the human protocol for this investigation and that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research.

This work was performed at University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.

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Bozic, K.J., Ward, L., Vail, T.P. et al. Bundled Payments in Total Joint Arthroplasty: Targeting Opportunities for Quality Improvement and Cost Reduction. Clin Orthop Relat Res 472, 188–193 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-013-3034-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-013-3034-3

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